Former president Jacob Zuma is taking the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to court. Zuma is demanding to know whether Fezeka Kuzwayo who is better known as Khwezi was paid by the NPA or any other person or entity to go ahead with the case against him.

Charin de Beer the original prosecutor in the Zuma matter has rubbished Zuma’s insinuation that Khwezi was paid to open criminal charges against Zuma and to pursue the matter all the way to court.

Zuma has through his lawyers demanded information from the NPA regarding alleged payments to Khwezi in addition to 38 additional categories of information on various topics in order to apply for a permanent stay of prosecution.

Briefly.co.za gathered that Zuma is claiming that the NPA and the SAPS were involved in pre-trial irregularities which led to both the charges and the eventual trial being delayed. Zuma’s legal team claims these delays caused prejudice against the former president.

TimesLive.co.za reported that Zuma’s newly appointed lawyer Daniel Mantsha wrote to the NPA in July to request any and all information of any payments made by or on behalf of the NPA to Khwezi in relation to the case from the time of the charge being filed in November 2005 up to and including the end of August 2008.

Mantsha said the request for information from the NPA was to ascertain whether the NPA had complied with its mandate of maintaining prosecutorial integrity and independence.

Mantsha denied that Zuma was trying to tarnish the memory of Khwezi who passed away in October 2016 and said Zuma was concerned by possible irregularities on the part of the NPA and how it had conducted the investigation and subsequent trial.

Mantsha declined to comment on whether Zuma believed or was trying to imply that Khwezi was a part of the politically motivated plot which Zuma believes and has maintained the NPA had against him while he was in office.

While the NPA has refused to provide answers to Zuma’s legal team, de Beer said as far as she knew Khwezi did not receive any payment from the NPA in regards to the case apart from possible payments which formed part of being in the witness protection program.

De Beer said if Khwezi had received any payments from the NPA or other sources she would have spoken to the prosecuting team or at the very least recorded the payments in her diary.

TimesLive.co.za claims to have seen the diary and reported that no mention of payments was recorded. De Beer labelled Zuma’s claims as absolute rubbish which is being driven by a politically motivated agenda.

The NPA has declined to comment on the matter saying it was now a matter for the courts to decide.